More EDs serve as safety nets

Emergency departments are increasingly serving as the safety net for medically underserved patients, especially adults with Medicaid, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded. As evidence of this trend, the co-authors point to the rise in rates of visits to EDs in the U.S. among adults on Medicaid.

The rate at which adults with Medicaid visited emergency departments climbed from 694 to 947 visits per 1,000 enrollees between 1999 and 2007.

The researchers also looked at the change in the number of emergency departments classified as safety-net facilities--which they defined as those that provide more than 30 percent of total ED visits to persons with Medicaid, more than 30 percent of total ED visits to uninsured individuals, or a combined Medicaid and uninsured patient population that exceeds 40 percent. Those facilities rose 41 percent to 2,489 from 1,770 between 2000 and 2007. The data comes from the 2007 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Rising Medicaid enrollments could lead to more crowding in emergency departments, co-author Ning Tang, assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, told DOTmed.

"Since enrollment in Medicaid continues to rise in this recession and with the new healthcare reform law, we are concerned that this rising enrollment will lead to more ED crowding," Tang said.

To learn more:
- see the Journal of the American Medical Association abstract
- read the American Medical Association press release
- see the DOTmed News article
- here's the article from HealthDay News

Related Articles:
HHS report: ED visits rise 23 percent over decade
More than Two-Thirds of Emergency Physicians Expect ER Visits to Increase Despite National Health Care Reform
HHS: One-fifth of ED visits are by uninsured patients

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